Learning to make change together

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Explorations

We Tip the Balance coordinates explorations, of various kinds and lengths, through the past and into a shared future. These opportunities for learning how to make change together:

start with the human desires, fears and sense of duty ​that make ​politics personal

are accessible and “call in” those for whom participation in social change is new

honor and study the history of social struggle

center contemporary forms of social struggle as reference points

see it as a practice with various dimensions and orders of change that we can ​learn about together

Inclusion Stories

​Inclusion stories describe the specific ways individuals and communities have come to participate in and benefit from a dominant, often heartless, culture. More than a tool for learning to connect with others across difference, inclusion stories can open up new paths for understanding the systemic, historic roots causes of our divisions from others; from our own families' history, culture and values; and within ourselves. ​

Shared Inquiries

It's a time of profound, high-stakes change: it's time to learn to make change together. Let's find out what questions we have in common. At an initial gathering, we get to know each other some and explore questions we share about how to make change together. Based on this conversation, I design a way to workshop ​these questions together with others.

​​Visioning exercises

Visions of the future guide our actions in the present, but they are shaped by beliefs we acquired in the past. These beliefs can easily serve as blinds spots to understanding our complex, rapidly changing world. Tools and practices for envisioning what might or could lie beyond these blind spots are crucial for ever more intentionally designing ourselves, our cultures and our institutions.

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Naming the Belief - downloadable worksheet

As people mature, we learn more about what we like, what makes us tick, why we do what we do. Communities also have their own set of experiences and characteristics that inform their preferences, or beliefs, and their actions. Understanding the beliefs that make communities tick is a powerful way to get beyond blind spots - perhaps theirs, and maybe our own. With this widened lens, we get more perspective on why someone else's vision of the future might differ from ours, and how we might navigate those differing beliefs and visions toward a shared future.

Visions Beyond Belief - workshop

In this workshop, we explore, attempt to categories and make sense of - we play with - beliefs. Who believes what? Why would they believe that? How is their belief different than mine, and why? Do my actions makes sense based on what I say I believe? If not, why am I compelled to act against my own beliefs? What can we learn about all the ways we, as conscious beings, are also unconscious and unknowing? This workshop is a way to explore an emerging territory of our individual and collective development and change itself.

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Study groups

Study groups provide partnership and support over ​several months as explorers expand ​our lenses for understanding ​this new terrain and how we got here. Locating ourselves in that picture, and ​studying the surroundings anew, can ​make us more effective change makers. These explorations prepare seekers of social change to work in concert with those who have different stakes and, sometimes, much more experience.

To find out more, you're welcome to contact me directly. Or sign up below to be added to the mailing list.